Informa latest to emigrate because of punitive UK tax

Magazine publisher and conference group Informa is to join the growing list of companies to flee abroad to escape Britain's complex and punitive tax regime.

The owner of shipping bible Lloyd's List is moving its tax base to Switzerland to avoid Revenue and Customs' raid on overseas earnings.

It comes ahead of UK law changes coming in from July, which Informa said could have had a 'material' detrimental impact on its income.

The shake-up affects how foreign profits are treated. Informa, with
offices in more than 40 countries, makes the vast majority of its money
overseas and said its tax rate would have jumped to as high as 31 per
cent under the new regime, from between 26 per cent and 27 per cent.

Its day-to-day running will not be affected, although directors will
need to go to Switzerland for board meetings. Investors need to ratify
the move before it goes ahead.

In a clear dig at the British system, Informa said Switzerland's
laws were 'less complex' and do not 'seek to impose tax on the
unremitted profits of subsidiary companies in other jurisdictions'.

WPP, United Business Media, Shire and Henderson have all moved their tax bases overseas since the start of 2008.

Chris Morgan, head of international corporate tax at KPMG, said the
exodus was due in part to 'the growing complexity' of the British
corporate tax regime.

Informa eased concerns over its balance sheet by announcing a
£242million underwritten rights issue. The new shares are being issued
at the deeply discounted price of 150p. The stock closed last night at
335¾p - up 38½p or 13 per cent.

It will use the funds raised to cut its borrowings. Chief executive
Peter Rigby said: 'We felt our overall level of debt at £1.3billion was
high and we would like it to be below £1billion.'

Informa expects its debt to have fallen to £900m by the end of the year.

Rigby said trading had been in line with management expectations in the first three months of 2009.

The publishing business is still growing but Informa's events business has been hit by the recession in some key markets.

Rigby added: 'There are relatively few green shoots around.'

Informa shares have more than halved in value in the past two years after a series of failed bid approaches.

It rejected a 450p-a-share offer from private equity players last
September. It followed the collapse of talks about a merger with UBM.